Plecos and shrimp

[goodjobchamp]

I see alot of people running tanks with shrimps and plecos. I find this a little odd only because when i would water change my neos once a week they hated it, would molt almost on que and i would lose so many. Lets just say my journey with shrimp has been long and i didnt know what else to do with them so i put them in a 3 gallon aquarium and just stopped touching their tank and now i went from the last 4 to 18 so its better. But I guess my question is how do people keep their shrimp alive with their plecos if they are doing so many water changes. 

[Sacah]

From what I've seen and my experience, it's easy to grow enough plants in a shrimp tank to keep the water params in a good position. This means I only do a tiny water change each week or two and I drip it back into the tank to not overwhelm the shrimp.

While I don't keep my pleco in the shrimp tank, I've only ever seen small plecos in them, so I'm guessing their bioload is small enough that the plants could also handle it, though as the plecos get bigger, I'm sure they'd have to move them from the shrimp tanks.

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/21/2024 at 8:44 PM, goodjobchamp said:

I find this a little odd only because when i would water change my neos once a week they hated it, would molt almost on que and i would lose so many.

Change water bi-weekly.  One pleco in a shrimp tank is perfectly fine. I keep clown pleco with mine.

[doktor zhivago]

My pleco and shrimp are just fine. They've never been bothered by water changes. I change water like once every week or two and have never had any problems. 

[Guppysnail]

I keep shrimp in all my tanks including a bristle nose pleco breeding tank. I find the more often I water change the hardier my shrimp are. All my tanks get a minimum of 50% water change weekly. 
 

When I started with shrimp I did the less wc thing. Then at wc I would lose shrimp. My theory is the lack of water changes weakens shrimp then the wc pushes them over the edge. 

[goodjobchamp]

I wonder if I just had other problems then because i would change weekly and i would put the water in rather slowly as to not shock them. Then i tried every 2 weeks and i just couldnt keep them alive but they seem happier in their own little tank that i dont really touch. @Guppysnail Thank you for the response. 

[T. Payne]

I have several breeding colonies of plecos including l333, l046, l174 and different color morphs of ancistrus, all of these tanks have cherry shrimp that have overrun the tanks like roaches. All of these tanks get large frequent water changes with a wide range of water conditions, anywhere from rainwater to tap water. I believe people baby neocaridinia shrimp too much.

[Guppysnail]

On 5/22/2024 at 12:47 PM, goodjobchamp said:

I wonder if I just had other problems then because i would change weekly and i would put the water in rather slowly as to not shock them. Then i tried every 2 weeks and i just couldnt keep them alive but they seem happier in their own little tank that i dont really touch. @Guppysnail Thank you for the response. 

That’s a good possibility.  I do not put my water in slow. I use a power pump to return 50%. 

[goodjobchamp]

Hm I will have to give it another shot down the road with my new plecos, I want a cleanup crew for the plecos and i really like shrimp. 

[Sacah]

When I first got my shrimp I slowly tipped water in for the water change, and it triggered them all to stress molt and one died from a failed molt. Since then I've been dripping it in over maybe an hour and it doesn't trigger any to molt.

@Guppysnail or @T. Payne, when you do your water changes, do they all molt still? Did they ever all molt, or you haven't noticed?

[T. Payne]

I've never noticed that my water changes causing the shrimp to molt.